Rant Coming Up Because Why Not

💌 ordered in AGAIN because it was raining heavily, also had some homemade food because my friend's mom is a GODSEND and started watching inside out 2 (can be read as: psych student heaven)

💌 a smol v cute flower

💌 started reading a good girl's guide to murder <3

💌 found an awesome paper title while researching for my social psych assignment (the one that says "I can fix him")

Studying when EXAUSTED

This is for those times when you really desperately want to be productive and get things done but you can't focus and you just want to sleep but you didn't do anything today so you feel shitty.

if you can, please just go to sleep (I do get that sometimes you feel so shitty about how little work you got done that you can't sleep, but if you can, please do it and approach tomorrow with a fresh start)

plan out what tomorrow is going to look like. I will break it down by task, for example: 6:00 wake up, 6:05 work out 6:15 shower, 6:30 make tea, 6:40 start work, 7:30 break etc. This will 1) help you feel better about not getting anything done 2) can help you be more productive tomorrow.

if you have things to do that are easy/low brain power, do them. These are things like printing out work, scanning stuff, tidying your kitchen. getting these little things out of the way can make a HUGE difference later

if you can, just read over your material. Don't even try to understand, just read it. Tomorrow when you come back to try and actually learn it, you will already be a little familiar and it can speed things up for you

eat something, drink something, and see if it makes you feel better- many times when i'm "unable" to go on, I eat a meal and drink a glass or two of water and magically I feel great again

try doing a workout- sometimes it just makes the exhaustion worse, but if you need to stay up later (shoutout to my fellow 6:30 pm bedtime pals) it can stretch time a little bit, and sometimes wakes up your brain. It's also good for you and can make your sleep go better

DONT DRINK COFFEE. or tea. no caffeine. you are already tired, it's not going to fix anything, its just going to make you jittery and sad. it's also going to upset your sleep schedule and make the tired worse for tomorrow.

lastly- just go to bed. pushing through true exhaustion is not going to help you or anyone else. anything you try and learn is going to float right out of your head, and it can lead to burnout which will make everything worse. Please just sleep

so I got into grad school today with my shitty 2.8 gpa and the moral of the story is reblog those good luck posts for the love of god

chaotic study sessions and pretty campus walks <3

just finished yet another statistics test and now im preparing for social psych 💪

AND THE FACT that this isn't even finals szn😔🤧

i declared my major and minor last week!

(if i sound excited about it, im not)

kind of scared but okay

but it feels nice to say that im doing a psych major with a design minor (⁠ʘ⁠ᴗ⁠ʘ⁠✿⁠)

im having yet another essay crisis so im watching essay crisis videos on YouTube. they help motivate me somehow.

(for context: i have a 1000 word philosophy essay due in two days and i haven't started. neither have i finished the 30 page required reading for said essay)

these are the videos btw~

ive taken a philosophy class this term, it's an introductory course but im still intimidated lolol

that's why looking at philosophy studyblrs is nice motivation

25.07.2020

my second semester starts on monday, and while i’m disappointed that i won’t be able to attend classes in person, i’m very excited for my philosophy of religion module. i’m getting a head start by reading and annotating the class notes and reviewing previous epistemology notes on religion.

studying spanish prior to an exam > being fortunate enough to visit Barcelona this summer

work hard, play hard💫

AAAAAAAAAA

i have to study for 4 finals in 2 days

and i have two papers on one day

IVE NEVER DONE THIS BEFORE

HOW DO I EVEN GO ABT THIS

hope i make it through

edit: I MADE IT THROUGH IT'S OVER

SO HAPPY FOR WINTER BREAK HAHAHAHAH

Unsolicited advice from a second year uni student

Since it's now September and most people I know will be heading either back to school or gearing up for university. And if anyone did what I did they might look at Tumblr to get some studying/life ideas (I did this during my A-levels and ended up making my own blog!). So I wanted to give some general advice from my perspective to anyone who might want it - also this will be specific to the UK but some of it is just general too. Also I want to be able to look back on this since I went back through my blog recently and realised I may have needed this advice even just a year ago.

For those who are about to go to university do not panic (cliché I know) but seriously. You will survive the first year I promise! It obviously varies from person to person and between unis and degrees but the first year will generally be a massive adjustment period in your life. And that will likely impact your mental health. This is totally normal. I got major impostor syndrome the first few months of uni. It wasn't until semester 2 that I started to feel comfortable. And largely because if was an entirely new way of learning and teaching, I had to completely relearn how to study, whilst also learning how to live on my own, and living in a new city and making friends.

You will make friends, it might not be immediately but you will find someone before the end of your first year. I got blessed by chance in making friends, but I know lots of people who it took the entire year to find their people. The unfortunate part of this advice is to make friends you do have to go outside and meet them (and I don't always mean going out drinking although this is definitely an option). Look for societies and clubs at your uni this will be 100% an easy way to meet people. And especially especially in the first few weeks of uni go to the welcome/fresher/first year events. I avoided them because I was anxious but turns out they're an amazing way to meet people because guess what? Everyone else is just as anxious as you are!

Expect your grades to go down at first and don't be discouraged, you can and will get those grades back up. And even if you don't (given that you are passing) it doesn't matter. Grades, especially at grad level are kind of inconsequential for most people. Two things to be mindful of are if you are going for a work placement or study abroad year (if you live in the UK) as first year grades do matter for those. Something no one will probably tell you till it's too late. But even then for most study programs you only need a 60% in your first year. And to just progress you only need a 40% (at most unis double check yours). Point being if there's ever a time for your grades to go down it's now, don't panic, your degree isn't over, you're not an impostor, you deserve to be here.

Everyone is struggling just as much as you are. Don't be fooled by Instagram or whatever. Even though I am guilty of it, we only show the nice parts of our lives online. When I get most stressed I step back from this blog, and you guys don't see the tears, sleepless nights, frustrating, and also kind of gross parts of being a student. So don't be fooled if Amanda from your seminar seems to have a perfect life on her Instagram, chances are she hasn't got it as together as you think, and you are no less better than anyone else in the room.

Save money anyway you can!!! I cannot stress this enough but one of the students biggest issues is spending. I'm guilty too but do your best especially in the first year to not overspend too much. Still enjoy yourself 100%, but do you really need to take out five times a week? Or the new shoes? Trust me by the time you get to your second year and your savings or your loan is gone you'll be wishing you held back a little.

If you are struggling. Talk to someone. For uni students, go to your mentor, academic lead, or look up the mental health service at your uni. Every uni (in the UK) has a mental health team. I know many of us are disillusioned with student support networks but I mean this when I say uni support systems are better funded, more rigorous and it serves them to support you. You are not just a student at the university, you are a customer paying a lot of money to be there. It's important that you are happy and you are progressing, otherwise both you and the uni lose! Don't be afraid to speak up when you need it, there will be someone there.

For UK students look up student groups for your university of Facebook. I'm being 100% serious when I say there is a gold mine of info on Facebook for unis. I never ever post on Facebook but it is so useful for staying in the know on events, stuff currently happening, and lots of student groups are pretty funny/gossipy. Some unis even have pages giving away free stuff from previous students, i.e. crockery, kitchen stuff, speakers etc. I managed to save some decent money on these groups. Also if you're into clubbing this is a pretty good way to learn where the good spots are in your city ;)

Romanticism will only go so far. Don't exhaust yourself on how you look. At the end of the day if you are getting the job done who cares if you did it hunched over a bag of cold McDonalds at 3 am? It's no better than someone with a green smoothie at a coffee shop.

I say a lot of this because my first semester was an emotional rollercoaster. During my GCSEs to A-Levels I thrived academically and then coming to Uni I felt like I was so out of my depth. And it wasn't until the second year I realised that this is, a) normal, and b) not that deep! So you scored a little low on an essay? Take the advice and work on the next one. You had some awkward conversation at a uni event? Everyone has forgotten about it already, give a different event a go. One of my favourite things about university is that it is surprisingly low consequence (in the grand scheme of things). Making mistakes won't end you it's okay. I know everyone on studyblr is a perfectionist but give yourself some leniency please. Anyway that's enough of my ranting. To be honest I expect no one to read this. But I am curious how I'll update it in a year's time once I'm going into third year.

If anyone has any questions about university my DMs are open. (I actually am now a paid guide for welcoming first years so it is literally my job lol).